She asked three times to use a phone and they told her to wait.Phoebe then missed her flight and informed a United employee and asked them to make sure the camp in Michigan knew she was late. She was told United would "take care of it."

Phoebe sounds more mature at 10 than the United employees. But yeah, never send your kid off alone on a plane without a cell phone to keep you updated at every stop. She could end up anywhere and United are a bunch of farktards.

minoridiot:At one time there was a good airline known as Continental Airlines.

Yeah, unless you're flying overseas. They were f*cking vultures and artificially inflated airfares after wiping out all their competitors in the Central Pacific. Continental/United can go f*ck themselves.

xanadian:scottydoesntknow: There's no way in hell I would let my 10-year-old daughter fly alone. I barely trust these farkers to get my luggage to the same place, much less a live human being.

I used to fly cross-country by myself (with greeters at each stop, of course) at age 8 to go visit my dad. It never bothered me in one bit. Yeah, airline employees back then seemed to care more.

Yea I should've included the "now" part at the end of that first sentence. I flew when I was 9 to Chicago from Houston and it was awesome, even got to go in the pilot's cabin and got some of those pin-on wings. Nowadays, no way in hell.

Yes lets blame everything bad on unions and not companies who treat customer service as annoyance.

I guess that is getting to the "culture" of the company. Because, in this case, we have a very specific thing as far as "why" she wasn't picked up ("Uh, I forgot")..... then, you have the customer service people who didn't seem to give enough care to the fact that they were put in "charge" of a 10 year old, and apparently she wasn't where she was supposed to be.

Any one of those people acting that way could be chalked up to "that person had a bad day, is a dick, etc"... multiple people acting in this way though shows some sort of company policy of "cannot deviate" from the rules.... ie, the person who says "My shift is ending" to the person pleading to know where their daughter is... is that just being a dick, or is it because there are some sort of draconian strict policies of how/when you can do your job. The guy who forgot, who knows, and it appears isn't really a direct employee of the airline. In any case, it comes down to a large group of people who don't have enough pride in their company/jobs to give a shiat. Is that bad company hiring practices, or a bad environment grooming the employees that way?

xanadian [TotalFark]scottydoesntknow: There's no way in hell I would let my 10-year-old daughter fly alone. I barely trust these farkers to get my luggage to the same place, much less a live human being.

I used to fly cross-country by myself (with greeters at each stop, of course) at age 8 to go visit my dad. It never bothered me in one bit. Yeah, airline employees back then seemed to care more.

Aren't you gay? And You don't think all that time spent with stewardesses has had any effect?

pippi longstocking:If you can afforduse frequent flyer miles to send your 10 year old to a summer camp across states you can afford another goddamn ticket for yourself, or pay a family member to do itare a cheapass and probably a bad parent.

The problem I have with this is that they are spending way too much money on the little rugrat's personal vacation. You've got to be pretty picky that summer camps closer to home simply aren't good enough.

scottydoesntknow:I flew when I was 9 to Chicago from Houston and it was awesome, even got to go in the pilot's cabin and got some of those pin-on wings. Nowadays, no way in hell.

Me too, back in the 70's they let me peek in the cockpit and get wings (I liked movies about gladiators).It was with a heavy heart that I had to tell my daughter on her first flight that she wouldn't get to do that cool stuff nowadays.

Then, since we were the last folks off the jet, they told her to come on up and sit in the pilot's seat, grab the yoke, put on a headset and and talk on the intercom.

As someone who was "lost" in an airport once as an 8yr old, i'm getting a kick out of this. Beilng locked in a deserted side office for 6 hours without food, water, bathroom, or outside contact/checkup of any kind, was not very much fun...Ahh, the days when we all said "oops, that sucked" instead of sueing for millions....

When Phoebe landed, no one was there to get her.The attendants told their daughter they could not help her and to wait.She asked three times to use a phone and they told her to wait.Phoebe then missed her flight and informed a United employee and asked them to make sure the camp in Michigan knew she was late. She was told United would "take care of it."

While I agree United farked up big time and then did as little as possible to try to make it right (which considering what could have happened to the 10 year old in a big city airport while alone, there probably isn't anything they could do to make it up.); why didn't her parents equip her with a cell phone. I am not a parent but considering you can get a rechargable phone for $20, I would be darned if my kid would be going on a trip like that without one. It probably would have resolved the missing kid proble a lot quiker too. Just my opinion.

minoridiot:At one time there was a good airline known as Continental Airlines. They had respectable customer service and helpful employees.

Then they were eaten by a troll known as United airlines. Now all we have is a fat, lazy troll.

Yep, up until 3 years ago they still gave meals to economy for free. Then they realized service doesn't matter, only fares, because people are stupid and will continue to fly no matter how they're treated, as long as it's "cheap"

Well, next time use an airline-approved travel cage and maybe this sort of thing won't happen.

Kid is old enough to use a cell phone. Should have had one with clear instructions on how to call home at the start/end of every flight and every 10 minutes in between. But I suppose that yes, perhaps the airlines shouldn't be a bunch of farktards. If they're going to offer unattended child service, they should probably not lose the children.

scottydoesntknow:xanadian: scottydoesntknow: There's no way in hell I would let my 10-year-old daughter fly alone. I barely trust these farkers to get my luggage to the same place, much less a live human being.

I used to fly cross-country by myself (with greeters at each stop, of course) at age 8 to go visit my dad. It never bothered me in one bit. Yeah, airline employees back then seemed to care more.

Yea I should've included the "now" part at the end of that first sentence. I flew when I was 9 to Chicago from Houston and it was awesome, even got to go in the pilot's cabin and got some of those pin-on wings. Nowadays, no way in hell.

cman:Farkin_Crazy: What parent in their right mind lets a 10 year old fly unattended across the country?

It is a service offered by the airlines. Airline staff are supposed to be watching the children.

Granted, but, as stated... we can hardly trust the airlines with our luggage. But, there are probably sometimes legit reasons for emergency purposes to get your kid across the country by themselves. But, if you are from San Francisco, I can't imagine what the hell that summer camp in Traverse City, MI had that is so awesome you had to fly your kid out to it by themselves for it.